Here’s everything to know about Canada’s new prime minister-elect Mark Carney

This weekend, Mark Carney was voted in as Justin Trudeau’s replacement as prime minister of Canada in a landslide vote. 

Carney secured 85.9% of the vote amongst registered Liberal Party members and will now be preparing to be sworn in as Canada’s next prime minister. 

Carney was born in the Fort Smith, Northwest Territories in 1965 before relocating to Edmonton, Alberta. 

In Edmonton, his father ran as a Liberal Party of Canada candidate and lost in the 1980 election. 

After finishing high school, Carney went to Harvard University to study economics, while also playing on the university’s varsity hockey team. 

Following Harvard, Carney went on to Oxford where he did his postgraduate studies in economics and got his master’s and doctorate in philosophy, focussing on competition between nations in his thesis work.

Carney then went on to work as an investment banker at Goldman Sachs for 13 years, working at offices across the world where he navigated several financial crises. 

He then went on to work for the government when he became a senior associate and deputy minister for Canada’s Department of Finance before becoming the Governor for the Bank of Canada. 

He took this position in 2007 at the onset of the global financial crisis—caused in part by predatory lending practices in the United States. 

Carney weathered the crisis well, and is credited with helping Canada avoid falling into disarray by central bank governors from throughout the G8. 

In 2012, Carney left the Bank of Canada when he was recruited to be the Governor of the Bank of England, making him the first non-Brit to hold the position since the Bank’s establishment in 1694.

There he navigated the failed 2014 Scottish referendum for independence, Brexit and the earliest days of the COVID-19 pandemic before leaving office in March 2020. 

After leaving the Bank of England, Carney was vice chairman for Brookfield Asset Management where he handled matters of environmental governance. 

In his early days at Brookfield, Carney made a false claim that the company’s portfolio was carbon neutral when it wasn’t and had to retract his false statements as a result. 

Then, it was revealed that Brookfield accepted $10 billion in Canadian government funds right around the same time as Carney was brought on by former prime minister Trudeau as a pandemic economic advisor. 

This became controversial, but ultimately proved not to be unethical because he was technically brought on to advise on the behalf of the Liberal Party of Canada, and not the Prime Minister’s Office. 

Carney’s recent winning of the Liberal Party leadership was not his first chance at getting into politics. 

Back in 2012, Stephen Harper asked him to join the Conservative government as minister of finance, but he declined. 

Then in the 2013 Liberal Party leadership race prompted by Michael Ignatieff’s resignation, he was speculated to run, but ultimately did not. 

The results of the 2013 leadership election saw Justin Trudeau win, leading him to become the prime minister in the next federal election in 2015. 

Carney decided he was ready and announced that he would be throwing his hat in the ring for the Liberal Party leadership race back in January of this year.

His support during the leadership election was more evident that when Trudeau won the leadership race of 2013, with more people turning out to cast their votes, a higher vote-margin and the fact that Carney won in all 343 electoral districts across the country. 

Carney will be sworn in following Trudeau’s stepping down process being completed, which is reportedly going to take place in the next few days. 

What Carney wants to do as prime minister

Carney’s vision for Canada is an economically-minded one, with a focus on strengthening bonds between provinces and territories amid looming United States tariffs. 

He also wants to see more housing built and has a plan to “supercharge Canada’s housing” and build more affordable homes. 

Carney’s economic plan is a fiscally-conservative one, which involves cutting government spending in order to invest more. 

Perhaps most notably, Carney wants to dissolve the consumer carbon tax, as it has become a divisive and contentious issue. 

Instead of the carbon tax, Carney would see better incentives brought in to encourage Canadians to make greener choices. 

The next federal election is slated to take place no later than October 20th, 2025; however, it may take place earlier should a snap election be called.